Joint Statement. Employers’ sanctions directive: Migrant workers, not employers, will pay the price of exploitation
- Document number
- 1911
- Date
- 2009
- Title
- Joint Statement. Employers’ sanctions directive: Migrant workers, not employers, will pay the price of exploitation
- Author/publisher
- Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Guidelines/Recommendations,
- Keywords
- Awareness Raising, Media, Information Campaigns, Empowerment, Advocacy, Civil society, NGO, Human Rights approach, Activism,
- Summary
- On 4 February 2009, the European Parliament voted in favour of an EU Directive providing for sanctions against employers of third-country nationals who are staying irregularly or working in breach of their residence status.
Encouraged by the high priority given by the EU Parliament to the problem of exploitation of migrant workers, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), the European Women's Lobby (EWL), Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) and SOLIDAR have used this opportunity to issue a joint statement and express their dissapointement that a compromise reached by the EU Council and MEPs has retained the focus on the status of the migrant, rather than the exploitation by the employer. Although ENAR, EWL, PICUM and SOLIDAR have welcomed the Directive's key protective provisions, they have nevertheless expressed their fear that migrant workers, not employers, will pay the price of their exploitation as well as a concern that Employers' sanctions directive does not recognise that undocumented workers do have labour rights and that the priority must be ensuring such rights are enforced.
- Related documents